Mission Briefing
Location: The wilds of your words.
Enemy: Extraneous adverbs and adjectives.
Enemy Classification: Extremely dangerous. Enemy has ability to infiltrate deeply and prolifically into manuscripts, causing a novel to tell and not show.
Mission: Locate and destroy the enemy. Adverbs can be replaced if needed with appropriate, original descriptions that show rather than tell. Extraneous adjectives usually must be killed on sight.
Weapons In Your Arsenal: A keen eye, ruthless killer instincts, an ability to withstand severe torture, the knowledge that you'll never give up.
You've been briefed, soldier. Good luck!
Haha :) Adverb pruning is so satisfying. I find that the more I practice that in my edits, the better I get at leaving them out in the first draft...
ReplyDeleteClever mission statement, Captain.
ReplyDeleteI wish you much accuracy when defeating your enemy. Stay safe, solider.
ReplyDeleteWe join you in your mission. Hand over the extra magazine, we're out. ;)
ReplyDeleteerica
LOL--that's a great analogy, and a clever post! Enjoyed this. :) I think I manage to weed out most adverbs, but I DO love my adjectives!
ReplyDelete=o) Awesome post. Good thing it doesn't explode when we're finished reading it. ;o)
ReplyDeleteGood point about adjectives, Carol. It is definitely at the soldier's discretion to determine which ones are extraneous. Tending to the flowery side of writing myself, I have to trim a ton of adjectives, or else I end up with sentences like:
ReplyDeleteShe stretched a pale, slender hand towards the big, white, glowing moon, which hung like a jewel in the endless, inky, silent night sky.
But for sure, some enemies certainly must be kept alive to tell the tale!
Alexia...loved this post. It has made me arm myself for the assault on the enemies invading my WIP. Thanks for the warning.
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter. Have a great Weekend.
You made me chuckle. Sometimes they do seem like the enemy but I prefer to think of them as unwanted guests at my New Year's Eve party. I have to find creative ways to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteJai